Greylegs
Well-Known Member
... on a horse which has been barefoot all of his 17 years.
For some reason, my highland - who has been barefoot all his life (now 17) - is seeing greatly increased wear and tear to his feet, mainly the fronts. He's kept at livery at a good yard, with daily turnout and in at night over the winter. I ride him either in the school (good surface), on grass tracks round the farm and very occasionally on road hacks, which he's done twice in the last month. He's fed HiFi Lite and Bailey's LoCal Balancer with ad lib hay, and stabled on rubber mats with a generous straw bed. He's generally fit and well with no obvious health issues.
The frustrating thing is that he's hacked on the roads in the area for over 5 years since I got him, but the council have recently re-surfaced the local lanes with granite chip and it seems to be far more abrasive than the old surfaces which is making the difference. I have bought boots for his fronts (Equine Fusion All Terrains) but they are difficult to put on, twist round in use and are generally a complete pain to use. I bough them from a reputable supplier who came out to fit him so i'm confident that they're the right size etc. This is my second attempt at boots: at least he does walk in these, whereas he refused to budge a step in the previous sort.
My farrier was on the yard yesterday shoeing the horse next door, so had a quick look at him, although his next trim isn't due for four weeks. He's quite concerned about the degree of wear to his front feet and has told me to use the boots whenever I'm hacking until he sees him again, which i'll do, of course. He's now talking about me considering shoeing him in front.
Obviously, I don't really want to go down that route, but am at a loss where to go next. If I want to keep the pony in a good level of work, I'll have to either overcome the boot issue and get some that actually work/stay on/the horse doesn't object to, or put shoes on his front feet.
I'm feeling very frustrated to say the least. Any thoughts or words of wisdom from those of you with more experience of barefoot horses would be much appreciated.
Sorry it's another barefoot thread ..... Chocolate cookies if you got this far.
For some reason, my highland - who has been barefoot all his life (now 17) - is seeing greatly increased wear and tear to his feet, mainly the fronts. He's kept at livery at a good yard, with daily turnout and in at night over the winter. I ride him either in the school (good surface), on grass tracks round the farm and very occasionally on road hacks, which he's done twice in the last month. He's fed HiFi Lite and Bailey's LoCal Balancer with ad lib hay, and stabled on rubber mats with a generous straw bed. He's generally fit and well with no obvious health issues.
The frustrating thing is that he's hacked on the roads in the area for over 5 years since I got him, but the council have recently re-surfaced the local lanes with granite chip and it seems to be far more abrasive than the old surfaces which is making the difference. I have bought boots for his fronts (Equine Fusion All Terrains) but they are difficult to put on, twist round in use and are generally a complete pain to use. I bough them from a reputable supplier who came out to fit him so i'm confident that they're the right size etc. This is my second attempt at boots: at least he does walk in these, whereas he refused to budge a step in the previous sort.
My farrier was on the yard yesterday shoeing the horse next door, so had a quick look at him, although his next trim isn't due for four weeks. He's quite concerned about the degree of wear to his front feet and has told me to use the boots whenever I'm hacking until he sees him again, which i'll do, of course. He's now talking about me considering shoeing him in front.
Obviously, I don't really want to go down that route, but am at a loss where to go next. If I want to keep the pony in a good level of work, I'll have to either overcome the boot issue and get some that actually work/stay on/the horse doesn't object to, or put shoes on his front feet.
I'm feeling very frustrated to say the least. Any thoughts or words of wisdom from those of you with more experience of barefoot horses would be much appreciated.
Sorry it's another barefoot thread ..... Chocolate cookies if you got this far.
